In order to hunt or observe wild game, many individuals find it desirable to place themselves in an elevated position above the animal hunted to prevent the animal from detecting the individual. To do so, many individuals use tree stands that position the hunter in a tree above ground level, keeping the hunter out of the typical line of sight of the animal.
As these tree stands are designed to position the individual in a tree above ground level, many times the individual will use a ladder both to position the tree stand within the tree and for accessing the tree stand once it is in place. To accommodate the needs of the individual utilizing the ladder, the ladders designed for this purpose should optimally be lightweight, stable, durable, and easily portable.
The simplest type of ladder that may be used for this purpose is a conventional stepladder, consisting of a pair of parallel rails separated by a number of steps or rungs attached between the rails. An individual may lean the stepladder against tree or adjacent structure to allow the in to secure the tree stand at the desired level on the tree. However, conventional stepladders present certain problems when used for this purpose. Due to the size of most stepladders, they become unwieldy when transported into the normally confined environment of a forest where a tree stand is used. Also, the stepladder is not equipped with any type of safety device that reliably secures the stepladder to the tree. Without such a device, there is no way to prevent the ladder from inadvertently sliding off of the tree and injuring an individual using the ladder.
Other types of ladders have been specially designed for use in connection with tree stands to overcome the problems associated with utilizing a conventional ladder. One type of ladder designed specifically for this purpose is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,336,999 issued to McSwain. This combination ladder and tree stand includes a stand or platform upon which the user may sit, a ladder assembly extending downwardly from one side of the stand to support the stand above the ground, and a clamp mechanism attached beneath the stand opposite ladder assembly for securing the stand and ladder assembly to the trunk of a tree. The ladder assembly is comprised of a number of intermediate ladder sections that are detachable from one another, allowing the ladder assembly to be quickly disassembled and placed into a compact, portable arrangement.
While this teaching provides a ladder and tree stand capable of being reliably secured to a tree trunk by the clamp mechanism, the ladder assembly forms a conventional stepladder-type arrangement when assembled. As such, the tree stand still has disadvantages similar to those associated with a conventional stepladder. For instance, the clamping mechanism will only properly grip the tree when the ladder assembly is placed at an angle commensurate with the tree trunk. When an irregularly shaped tree trunk is not substantially perpendicular to the ground at the point at which the clamping mechanism is attached to the tree, the ladder assembly is not able to be positioned perpendicularly to the ground to insure a stable base for the ladder assembly. Therefore, the assembly cannot be utilized with a tree having an irregularly shaped trunk. This necessarily limits the number of trees on which the tree stand disclosed in McSwain may be used. Furthermore, as the ladder assembly is a single, unitary piece when constructed, any limbs or branches extending outwardly from the lower portion of the trunk may also create problems by contacting the assembly and preventing the proper stable positioning of the assembly adjacent the selected tree.
Other types of ladders have been developed for climbing trees that utilize a modular construction that allows the ladders to be utilized with trees having irregularly shaped trunks and/or branches extending from the trunk at a low level, conditions which make ladders having conventional stepladder arrangement unusable.
The individual modules, or climbing sticks, used in forming these ladders have a simple construction comprised of a number of individual alternating steps secured to an elongate tubular support member. One such ladder module is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,547,035 issued to D'Acquisto, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Each module is secured to the tree trunk by engaging a securing belt, which is removably attached to one side of the support member, with a buckle strap, which is also removably attached to one side of the support member. The securing belt and buckle strap are releasably engaged with one another through a buckle.
The module is supported on the tree by stabilizing brackets located at various positions along the length of the support member. The brackets engage the trunk of the tree to prevent the ladder module from sliding downwardly along the trunk while supporting a hunter. The brackets are rotatably mounted to each end of the support member to allow each bracket to independently conform to the direction in which the tree trunk extends.
However, these individual ladder modules disclosed in D'Acquisto have shortcomings. First, each step is mounted on only one side of the support member. Therefore, if a user steps to the wrong side, there will be no step to support the user, which increases the potential for injury. Furthermore, these types of ladder modules use conventional buckles or clips to secure the strap around the tree. These buckles or clips may allow the strap to loosen over time or with repeated use, which also increases the potential for injury.